Hey guys,

Just got my tC over the weekend and am enjoying it to no end. So far only one real question - one which I was unable to find the answer for by searching...

I've found that turning the car completely off turns off the D/C power points as well. In pervious cars I've had (read: old cars - '92 Beretta and '86 Skyhawk Hatchback), these would always stay on so you can do things like charge your phone while you're not in the car, leave a purifier going, light a cig (I don't smoke, but whatever), etc. Is there any way to keep these on after removing the key? Or is there something going wrong with my tC? It's just real nice to have this when I forget my wall charger for my cell.

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

Most Toyota cars that I have ever been in turn the power points off. You can always rewire the outlets to have constant 12v.

 

But in doing so, you're leaving a small possibility of draining your battery over an extended period of time...

:?

 

That might happen if you're powering a spotlight. I'm assuming it's for a cell phone, and you should'nt have any problem with it at all. I had my car rewired for constant power to the outlet and I'm always charging my phone, so you should be just fine.

 

Even if that were a possibility, my cell phone stops charging automatically and goes into sleep mode after the battery is full. Aside from that, I never had a problem with batteries draining when I left my cell charging in the car, even overnight on camping trips where I had my cell along for emergencies.

As for rewiring for constant voltage... I'm assuming this is no easy task for an electric system newb such as myself. Anyone done this before and have any insight?

 

if you just want to rewire your cig lighter so you can use it as a plug that should be no big deal...pull off the dash panel...disconnect the wires from the back of the plug...locate a 12v constant and tap into it or just run a new wire from the fuse panel...not that big of a deal
if anybody has any other opinions on it feel free to correct me or add on

 

Yeah man, totally normal. All of my old cars (02 Civic EX, 99 Galant, 96 Tracker...) did this, including my tC. Rewiring is the only option sadly, but dont worry, nothing is 'wrong'